Hamas leader: Revolutionary Guards will stand by us

Hamas leader says the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force assured him the Revolutionary Guards would stand by the Hamas leadership.

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Elad Benari, 26/12/17 04:16

Yahya Sinwar

Reuters

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said on Monday that the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani, had promised him in a phone conversation that the Revolutionary Guards would stand by the Hamas leadership, Yediot Aharonot reported.

According to the report, Sinwar stressed that Suleimani promised to provide the Palestinian people with all the means at the IRGC's disposal in the struggle for Jerusalem.

Suleimani had contacted the military leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in recent weeks, after Israel destroyed two terror tunnels from which led from Gaza into Israel.

Suleimani is the subject of a travel ban from the UN but nevertheless has reportedly met with Russian officials several times in recent years. He has also been spotted in Syria, where Iran is actively helping President Bashar Al-Assad in fighting rebels trying to oust him.

In the past, he has ridiculed calls for Hamas to be disarmed, saying that “disarmament of resistance is a daydream that will only come true in the graveyard" for Israel.

Iran is a supporter of Hamas, despite the fact that relations between the two soured several years ago, when Hamas refused to support Assad. An angry Iran then reportedly stopped supplying the terror group with weapons.